Hermonie's Houseelf Hassles
by Silvra
Summary: [Completed]Hermonie's 7th year at Hogwarts, strange events occur thanks to some of Fred and George's candies. Sequal to Harry and the Dursley's Unlucky summer
1. Another beginning

CHAPTER ONE: ANOTHER BEGINING

Hermione Granger walked down the aisle in front of her best friend, Aimee. Today was Aimee's Wedding Day and she was marrying one of the most famous wizards of all time; Harry Potter. Hermione was really excited, but was sure that she wasn't half as much excited as the beautiful bride walking slowly behind her in step with the wedding march that has led so many blossoming blooms of flowering love to each other in eternal bonds to each other as one.

Hermione could only remember her own wedding day, and peered over her shoulder to peer at the smiling silver eyed bride. Looking back forward, towards the groom, she could see the gleam of his love for his bride and she felt even more excitement for the two of them. 

As she slowly walked up the aisle, she started to think about how these two had met—and had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. 

"Ahh," she thought to herself' "the mischief we got ourselves into!" 

After she got the rest of the way up the aisle, Hermione took her place off to the left and took her place in the front of the church as a bridesmaid and watched as her husband patted Harry on the shoulder, while the twins, Miranda and Cassandra walked up the aisle throwing roses everywhere followed close behind by Beryl, who was the ring bearer.

Finally, came the Bride in her flowing, white gown, with a long train. Three young girls were carrying the train; Mackenzie, Celeste, and Shirley. Flowers wreathed around everything, including every girls' head in the wedding party. At last, everyone had arrived and the ceremony began, but Hermione's thoughts were very far away….

* * *

"Hi, Hermione!" Harry called out as he saw her run through the barrier to the Hogwarts Express Platform. They had split up earlier that day to finish some last minute shopping for school that year. Apparently, there had been some last minute additions to one of their classes, so Mrs. Weasly and Hermione went to fetch the needed supplies for everyone. After the summers event, all three of them felt they were ready for anything, however Mrs. Weasly was quite insistant that Ron and Harry go straight to the train so that 'they might keep out of trouble,' however well that worked.

Hermione was very glad to see everyone looking normal again, but she was very self conscious about one of her fingers. It was rather green, and wasn't really her finger; it was Dobby's and he had hers. But what was done, was done and she couldn't change it, no matter how hard she might try.

"Hello Harry, Ron." She replied, walking over to them. Suddenly, the train whistle blew quite loudly, signaling that it was soon to depart. After bidding Mrs. Weasly good bye, the trio boarded the train; and just in time, might I add, for no sooner did they sit down did the train start to move!

As Head Boy and Girl, Ron and Hermione had duties to attend to, but they assured Harry that they would return soon.

* * *

Hermione's thoughts were interrupted as everyone was supposed to stand for the end of the wedding.

"Now," the preacher said, "You may kiss the bride!"

The young lovers kissed with such passion that a magical aurora of light surrounded them and lifted them off their feet. They floated in air until they finished their kiss. As each of them landed softly on the ground again, they were staring deeply into each other's eyes. Neither appeared to have noticed what had happened.

* * *

About twenty minutes later, the entire wedding party was gathering all of the wedding guests into a beautiful room where they were holding the wedding reception.

Hermione watched as the Bride and Groom shared the first dance. It was such a beautiful song and there was such a dreamy air about it that she was quite surprise when it ended. Suddenly, Aimee was grabbing her hands and pulling her to the center of the room where Ron was waiting for her. It was time for the dance where the entire wedding party danced together.

* * *

About a month later, after Harry and Aimee returned from their honey moon, everyone was gathered at the Weasly house for dinner.

It was a perfect evening, al the children were running around and the house was full of laughter.

Suddenly, Hermione turned to Aimee and asked her, "Do you remember how we all met?"

Aimee turned to her friend, "Of course I remember, it was one of the most ridiculous things that ever happened to me!"

Mira came running over. "How did you meet daddy, Aimee?  Oops, Mommy?"

"Well, Harry had been on the train alone, while Ron and I did head boy and girl duties, dear," Hermione told the ten year old. So he was easily bored and decided to get up and wander to see if another train car had someone he could talk to. No sooner did he open his door then in came hurtling someone. However, the person was so covered that he couldn't recognize them as a person!"

* * *

A young, silver-eyed ragged girl popped her head out of the top of the things covering her. Harry wasn't sure if the girl was covered in ragged blankets, or half a million scraps of cloths and fabrics.

"Are they gone?" She asked him in a shaky, whisper.

He looked her over; her hair was going in any direction, as though she hadn't brushed it that morning and her face was covered in dirt. 

"Is who gone?"

"Those three creepy guys who were chasing me," she replied, shivering. 

Harry looked out the door of the compartment, but no one was there. "I think so. Are you ok?"

"Yea. Just cold."

"How can you be cold?" he exclaimed staring at all the fabric covering her.

"One of them threw a weird curse at me."

"O."

* * *

All of a sudden, Hermione noticed that she had an audience of children and adults.

"O, my. Is everyone listening?"

"Well, of course, Aunt Hermione," Candi stated calmly. "It's bound to be just as good a story as the last one!"

at that comment many of the adults present began to laugh while Hermione and Aimee blushed red as cherries.

"Right…"

* * *

He looked at the shivering girl. "C'mon, lets get you to the hospital car." along the way, the ran into Hermione and Ron who were coming back to sit with Harry. The four of them went to the hospital car after a quick discussion of what was going on.

The nurse looked at the girl with amazement. "How are you withstanding that curse, child? It is apparent that it has been upon you for some time."

"I have had training in the sustainment of  evil curses and spells," she responded, "M'am," she added, as an afterthought.

"You are wise in ways I do not know, aren't you, dear?"

"I don't think so, M'am. I know only what my Father has taught me, which isn't much."

"Ah, and a modest girl, at that," the nurse said, almost to herself.

"Well, I am Madam Herskine, Madame Pomphrey's assistant."

The girl stretched out her left hand and replied, "I am Aimee Legalador, Daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Poruddine."

The confused nurse reached out her right hand, but the girl grabbed the nurse's left hand.

"The left hand symbolizes friendship, M'am."

Not only did the Madame Herskine not expect this, neither did Harry, Hermione, and Ron. The three of them stared at the girl, mouths agape. When Aimee saw this, she asked, "Whats wrong with you? I'm just a normal girl, as normal as any of you!" The nurse then shook herself out of her daze and began administering her healing abilities on the girl.

However, the three teens were not so easily removed from surprise. They sorta just stood there, watching. None of tehm appeared to have moved, not that it had taken very long. However, Aimee didn't appreciate it. She wanted to be treated as an equal, not like some superstar who you couldn't be anywhaere near, which is why she had persuaded her father to let her attend Hogwarts for her final year of schooling. She had previously only been tutored by some of the most distinguished witches and wizards around the globe privately. But she wanted more, and would do almost anything to get it.

"Why are you staring at me like that? I won't bite!" and with that, she stormed out.

"Why didn't you tell us, Harry?" Ron demanded.

"I didn't know…she doesn't know my name yet either, nor yours. We came straight here, no introductions where made."

"O."

* * *

"You're a princess, Aim-mommy?" Mira exclaimed.

"No, dear. I'm a Duchess."

"O. But isn't that still royalty?"

"Yes, it is." Aimee looked at the girl, thinking about the time she'd last referred to her rank in society. So long ago, yet so very near. She wondered if her father would ever forgive her totally for that. He must forgive her at least a little bit, for he agreed to walk her down the aisle and he was speaking to her again, but his eyes still showed a bit of disgust and anger whenever he looked at her.

* * *

After The train arrived at the lake, Aimee stepped out and looked across the lake towards the towering castle in the distance.

"Wow," she murmured, "it's even bigger then Father's castle."

She was so busy staring at the beautiful building, that she was quite startled when someone gently grabbed her shoulder and said, "C'mon, it's time to get on the boats. Yer a first year, no matter how old ye are, so c'mon. I'm Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Grounds and Keys at the school. Plus, I'm the Care of magigal creatures professor," He said, quite proudly. Aimee turned and looked into the face of the largest, and kindest looking man she had ever seen before in her life. 

* * *

It took about ten minutes for Hermione, Harry, and Ron's thestral-drawn buggy to get up to the school. When they did, they were greeted by a surprise. There were flags and more hung around the school that had not been there before.

"It's the Legalador flag, "Hermione murmured in awe.

"Whose?" Ron asked, stupidly.

"It's the Flag of the Duke and Duchess of Poruddine," Hermione clarified, "Aimee's parents."

"O." A look of wonder dawned on his face as he and Harry studied the flags. 

They were crimson flags with cold decals. In the middle was a brilliant green shield with a thestral sewn in the middle of it.

"Hermione, Ron!" Harry exclaimed in a hushed whisper, "the creature in the center of those flags is a thestral!"

Hermione looked at Harry, astonished. 

"Are you sure?"

Harry nodded gravely.

* * *

"What's a thestral, Auntie Aimee?" Celeste asked.

"It's a creature one can only see after they have witnessed someone die. It is a sad sight when someone knows the beast by just a picture."

"You mean, they have to see someone kill someone?"

"Yes, sadly, I do."

"I hope I can never see a thestral, then."

"Me too!" exclaimed Shirley and Mackenzie at the same time.

"Me three," Beryl added.

"Us, four!" shouted the twins. 

The group of children fell to the floor in a fit of laughter, bringing smiles to the serious faces of the adults.

"I hope so, too," Harry murmured quietly, "I hope so too."

* * *

About two minutes after all the returning students had gathered into the Great Hall, the first years were arriving at the gateway to the school yards.

They were lead through the school yard and Aimee tried to hide her face as students pointed out her father's flag.

"He promised not to put them here!" she muttered under her breath, scornfully. "WHY are they here?"

However, her disgust with her father soon was forgotten as the first years were lead to the great doors of the Great Hall.

After about five minutes, half consisting of the laying down of the rules, half consisting of readying the returning students, the first years were lead into the Great Hall. Professor McGonagall stopped Aimee and said, "You'll be sorted first. You are a seventh year student, no matter that this is your first year here, understand?"

Aimee nodded glumly at the prospect of more attention being drawn to her and allowed herself to be pushed into the beautiful room.

Within minutes, Dumbledore had announced all the rules and regulations, and Professor McGonagall was calling on her to come up to be sorted.  "Legalador, Aimee."

The room went deathly silent, then suddenly someone said, "That's why the Duke and Duchess of Poruddine's Flags are flying here, that's their Daughter!"

Although it was said in a voice barely over a whisper, in the silent hall, everyone heard it and Aimee turned a wonderful shade of scarlet. "Why must I get all this attention?" she thought to herself.

It seemed like the Sorting Hat didn't want to chose which house she was in; it kept muttering how she would thrive in Ravenclaw, how she would bring hope to Hufflepuff, how she would be great in Slytherin, or how her loyalty would fly through Gryffindor.

After about ten minutes of it's rants, she finally muttered, "c'mon, please, pick one!" 

"Ah, bold of tongue," it chided her, yet full of spirit. What say you to which house you go?"

"Not my father's," she growled. 

"Ah, feisty, too, and disobedient," it murmured to her, "Best be GRYFFINDOR!" it shouted to the school.

Aimee sighed in relief as the sorting hat was lifted from her head and she sat down. But seconds later, she wanted to melt out of sight as one of the professors said quiet firmly, "Aimee Legalador is a student in her seventh year. She has been tutored privately her entire life, and maybe more advanced then any of you. She is a seventh year student and is to be treated as such."

After that, the regular sorting ceremony began, in all its usual festivities.

* * *

"Auntie Aimee?" 

"Yes, Shirley?"

"Why was everyone so surprised you were at Hogwarts?"

"Well, because my father was openly against Professor Dumbledore and against me attending the school, or any other similar one, for that matter. I received letters of acceptance from every wizarding school on the continent, and then some. I begged him to let me go, but he forbade it."

Shirley looked calmly at Aimee, "How can he forbid you to go to school?"

"It's not easy, but I persuaded him when he couldn't find anyone willing to tutor me anymore."

"Why couldn't he?"

"Because I called every single tutor on his list and told them that if they agreed, I would personally see to trouble on their part."

"That's not nice, Auntie!!"

"You're right, it's not," came Aimee's quiet response.

* * *

The first day of classes was nerve-racking for Hermione. She kept remembering occurrences from the summer, and couldn't help but wonder if she would transform into a house elf in the middle of class or something. When Harry and Ron asked if she was ok, she just shrugged them off, and told them to hurry up so they wouldn't be late for class. 

As they walked towards transfiguration, Aimee sat down at a desk in the classroom, where Professor McGonagall told her to sit.  She sat there, fidgeting impatiently. She wanted to fit in, but didn't know how to when everyone avoided her.

A few minutes later, the trio sat down; Hermione at the desk next to her, Harry and Ron behind them.

Class began with attendance and Aimee drew in a deep gasp of surprise when the professor called "Potter, Harry," and the boy behind her said, "Here, M'am."

She didn't dare turn around; proper etiquette had been drilled into her since the day she was born and it saved her from embarrassing herself further by not knowing that the Boy-Who-Lived sat at the desk directly behind her.

They were giving some notes to take and some deskwork to do. "Review," Professor McGonagall told them when most of the students groaned. "I'd like to know just how much you've retained over the past six years."

While they were doing this, the professor wandered around the class room and spoke to each student personally. Aimee was quite surprised when she stopped by Hermione's desk and asked her, "You've begun to realize the dangers of the misuse of transfiguration, Miss Granger, haven't you?"

"Yes."

"Don't worry, If you ever have problems with it, come ad tell me. Later when things get settled, you will come to see me once a week so  you can learn to master your new gift. Alright?"

"Yes, M'am, thank you."

Later, at the end of class, Professor McGonagall asked the class if any of them wanted to be trained in the art of an animagi. After she had taken down the names of those who wee interested, class was dismissed.

* * *

"What's an animagi, Aunt Hermione?" Candi asked the present story teller.

"It's a person who can change into an animal at will."

"Are you an animagi?"

"Not really."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I can change in to another creature, but it's not of pure will, and I didn't have to learn it, it just happened because of you're Uncle Fred and George's candies."

"O."

At this point, Aimee looked at Hermione with a funny glint in her eye. "Shall I show them?"

Hermione giggled and nodded.

The six children watched Aimee with interest as she seemed to melt away. With in ten seconds in her place stood a beautiful chestnut mare with a white star on her forehead. It was definite proof that she was an animagi because NO horse could have such a perfectly shaped marking on their face.

The children Oooed and Aaahhhed until Harry came in, with Ron not far behind to send them off to bed.

"Come on, kids. It is time for bed."

"But.." Mira complained.

"Nope, no ifs, ands, or buts. Shoo."

Aimee snickered and trotted up to the kids. Looking at them straight in the eye, she leaned down and beckoned to them. The clever kids quickly figured it out and climbed on her back. How she managed six of them, no one knew, but she got them all up the stairs and was back a few minutes later as her normal self.

She and Hermione burst into laughter as Ron and Harry shook their heads.

* * *

The next class was just as weird; Hermione was very surprised at the number of Professors who knew about what had happened that summer. They talked to Ron about it to. The two of them were going to both have an extra class once a week in the evenings to master how to become the creature that was now part of them…and to become themselves again. Neither was very happy about it; which, as Harry put it, was not normal because Hermione always wanted to learn and Ron wanted to be something his brothers weren't. What better than being an animagi?

Later that day, after lunch, one of the first years was exploring the Gyffindor common room. The sixth and seventh years were outside, at flying lessons. The third, fourth and fifth years were in class as well, and it was the break for the first and second years.

He looked behind a little door he found in his dormitory.

"What'dja find, Mixil?" Gabriel Lorian asked him.

Kadry Mixil looked up at his friend, "I don't know. It's secret compartment, I think!"

The two boys looked deep into the opening, groping their hands about inside it. Suddenly, Gabriel's hands found a piece of cloth.

"O!"

When he had pulled it free, he was quite excited. It was a sack full of candy!

Little did they know that the famous Weasley twins had slept in this particular dormitory and that was where they hid their concoctions from suspicious professors…


	2. Two House Elves

A/N: If you haven't read my other story yet, you may want to know that this one comes directly after it. LoL

I forgot to mention that. ALSO!! In one whole thing:

NO, most of these characters are NOT mine. In fact, the ones you MIGHT call mine, are really my friend's characters…I'm just using them. The school, the creatures, etc…are not mine!!! The ONLY thing that is mine is the plot...and the actual story I have placed here. OK?

Enjoy!!!  :o)

CHAPTER TWO-HOUSE ELVES

About twenty minutes later, the fifth years were returning to the common rooms for their break while the other students were leaving. The seventh years came in about ten minutes afterwards because they had to take care of their brooms.

"Hey, Harry! Hey, Ron!" Ginny called when she saw them come into the room.

"How are you, Ginny?" Harry asked.

"Ok. Do you know Jessica, Hermione? She need some help in her potions class."

"Hello, Jessica. What do you need help with?" Hermione, who came in right behind Harry and Ron, turned to the tall girl with shoulder length brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. 

"Well, I'm not sure, but even when I do all of the instructions correctly, my potions all come out wrong."

"What happens to make them wrong?" asked Aimee, who had come in with Hermione.

"Well, we were supposed to be making a sleeping drought and instead of falling asleep, my partner transformed into a monster from under the bed!"

"Hmmm…sounds like you have the weird talent of making spells change their job."

"Huh?"

"It's a special type of talent my Tutor taught me about. Some people have strange abilities that most people can't do."

"Like Harry is a Parslemouth?"

"Precisely."

Aimee smiled at Jessica. Suddenly, realization dawned on her face. Whirling around, she asked Harry, "You're a Parslemouth?!"

"Yea," he responded, blushing.

"Who, exactly, ARE you?" Aimee still didn't quite believe that this was HIM, the Boy-Who-Lived, the boy, who, as an infant had defeated the Dark Lord.

"Harry Potter," was his simple response.

"Wow." Aimee looked at him with such a look that he thought she was going to pass out.

"Are you ok?"

"Yea, yea," she said, waving her hand at him, "I'm fine."

Aimee sat down at the table, where she found a bowl of candies in the middle of the table. Selecting a piece of chocolate, she offered a piece to the others. Hermione accepted one, so everyone else did too.

Everyone else sat down around the table, and soon everyone was chatting.

As Harry and Ron discussed quidditch tryouts, (Harry was quidditch captain that year), Hermione, Aimee, Ginny, and Jessica started to try to figure out Jessica's talent, and to help her to figure out how to counter it and make it only work when she chose.

* * *

Harry smiled as his wife looked at him impishly. "Do you remember that?"

"Yep!" she replied. Aimee grabbed his arm and pulled him to the mantle, where lots of pictures were sitting. Pointing one out, "Harry, remember when this picture was taken?"

"Sure do!"

"I wanna see!" Beryl exclaimed. Aimee passed the picture around the room. "Colin Creevy took that picture. That's his hobby, photography. He was quite amazed to learn who those two are!" 

"Who are they, Auntie?"

"Well,…"

* * *

Hermione was impatiently attempting to get everyone to hurry up.

"C'mon, guys, it's time to go to dinner!"

It was several hours later, classes had ended for the day, and Hermione was ravenous. She didn't know why, but it felt like she hadn't eaten in weeks.

After much prodding and pulling, she managed to persuade her friends to leave the common room for the great hall.

"Finally!"

Dinner was as uneventful as could be, and soon everyone was heading back upstairs to bed.

Late that night, down in the kitchens, Winky and Dobby were quarreling.

"We mustn't. We gotta be good elves or our master kick us out, Dobby!"

"Dumbledore says it ok! We must go. We have to go!"

all that resulted in this was a large scale cat-fight between the two of them. The two house elves quickly received an audience of surprised house elves.

Meanwhile, in their dormitories, Hermione and Aimee were tossing and turning in their sleep. Anyone who watched this strange occurrence would quickly notice that they moved in the same way at the same time. "O!" each of them said at the same time, clutching their stomachs.

Suddenly, both girls sat up straight in bed; still asleep. The two of them got up and slept walked towards each other. They woke up when BOOM! They crashed into each other and suddenly appeared where BOOM! Winky threw Dobby into the wall.

Three house elves stood in the center of the room, staring at Dobby, who lay, unconscious on the floor, while the rest of the house elves scrambled out of there.

Aimee stared at the house elf on the floor, then looked around, "Hi. Where am I?"

Hermione looked at her. "In the kitchens," she replied softly. Then she went over to Dobby to help him out. After waking him up, she helped him stand up. "Who are you?" were the first words out of his mouth. Hermione looked at him very surprised.

"What do you mean? It's me, Hermy!"

"No," he said decisively, "THAT's Hermy," he pointed at Aimee.

"What?!" Hermione asked, then looked at Aimee's hand and then her own. "Oh my God! No! Not this, how could…"

"What's going on?" Aimee interrupted. 

Hermione stared at her.

"You're me! You're Hermy!"

"No, I'm not, I'm Aimee!"

"No!" Hermione exclaimed as she went quickly to her and grabbed her hand and pointed out Aimee's forefinger. 

"That's HIS finger!" Hermione exclaimed, pointing at Dobby. Aimee, who had not realized yet that she had been completely transformed, looked herself over, after realizing that her finger was now greenish brown, instead of it's normally peachy-pink tone.

"W-w-w-what do you," Aimee stuttered, "what do you mean?"

"You're me! And that must mean," Hermione's eyes went wide, "I'm YOU!"

Aimee gasped.

About ten minutes later, they were in their dormitory, hiding from everybody. "How can I be you?" Aimee asked her. 

"we must have switched places somehow, but I don't know how," Hermione replied, in a panic.

"Calm down. Wait a minute," Aimee did a double take, "What do you mean, you're me? I'm not a house elf!" 

"I KNOW! I'm not one, either! Not technically, anyway." Hermione's response was full of sobs.

"Who exactly ARE you?!"

"I'm Hermione."

"But…" Aimee's reply died in thin air. "So That's what Professor  McGonagall was talking about! You're gift! You can become a house elf!"

Hermione nodded.

"But, I can't become a house elf! So, how come if I'm you and you're me, we're BOTH house elves?"

"I don't know!" Hermione sobbed.

"Calm down, please, calm down!"

Aimee tried to comfort the sobbing house elf. Within minutes, Hermione had sobbed herself to sleep, and Aimee, too, fell asleep, holding Hermione close in a comforting embrace.

The next morning, after everyone else had gone downstairs for breakfast, the two girls went outside, in hope of talking to Hagrid. 

"He'll know what to do!" Hermione told Aimee, "He loves magical creatures!"

But, the two of them did not expect that Colin Creevy would be right outside Hagrid's cabin, taking photographs of everything he could. Seeing the two of them, he took a picture. "I'll make doubles," he told them, "That way, you two can have a copy, ok?"

"the two dumbfounded house elves nodded mutely. "Good. I'll give it to Dumbledore to give to you, ok?"

Without waiting for a reply, he walked off in search of something else to photograph.

Seconds later, the two of them charged into Hagrid's hut. 

"Help!" Hermione exclaimed. "Hagrid!!"

"Hagrid turned around and looked at the two of them. Both cringed at the size of the man. Fang bounded over to greet them too, yet even he was bigger then the two of them. "AHHH!" screamed Aimee.

Hagrid grabbed Fang's collar and told him to sit and stay.

"Now, why might two house elves be coming to me for help?" he asked them.

"We're not house elves!" Hermione exclaimed!

"Well, then what might you be?"

"We're STUDENTS!"

"Calm down, Hermi-"

"HERMIONE?" Hagrid interrupted, "you're Hermione?"

Hermione nodded.

"Who are you, then?"

"Aimee."

"Aimee who?"

"Aimee Legal-"

"LEGALADOR? The duchess? O my, What happened?"

"We don't know. Can you help us at least become human again? I think we've become each other."

"What do you mean, you 'think you become each other'"?

Hermione had had enough and grabbed Aimee's hand and, pointing, exclaimed, "That's Dobby's finger!"

Hagrid looked at the two with a look of surprise mixed with fear on his face.

* * *

"What had happened to you, Auntie Aimee?"  Mackenzie asked. "You're not mommy!"

Aimee couldn't help but suppress a laugh. "Your mother and I switched places. She's half house elf, but only because of a spell, not because of birth."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mackenzie eyed her aunt reproachfully.

"Well, Professor McGonagall explained this to us, after Hagrid practically dragged us to her classroom. Actually, I believe he carried your mother!"

Hermione glared at Aimee, as she continued the story.

* * *

Several minutes later, after Hagrid had literally sat the two girls down in chairs and commanded them to stay (because the really did NOT want to be there) Professor McGonagall came out to question the two of them.

"Which one of you is Hermione?"

Hermione looked up. "Me."

"So that means your Aimee," she stated, looking towards the house elf she knew to be Hermy. "I think you two are in a bit of a predicament."

"I should say so!" Hagrid said.

"Hagrid? Go get Harry and Ron."

 "Alright."

As Hagrid got to the door, she thought of something else as well.

"Get Dumbledore, also."

He nodded to show that he heard as he left the room, closing the door behind him.

"Now, ladies, what exactly is going on? When did this occur?"

"L-l-l-last night," Hermione replied, as though the professor might hit her all of a sudden for no reason. Professor McGonagall noticed this right away.

"Aimee?"

"We were in bed, sleeping, but not well. I was tossing and turning all night until this happened because my stomach hurt. But then were were in the kitchens and a house elf was on the floor, with another one standing above him, glaring. Hermione called him Dobby."

"was your stomach hurting before this? Either one of you?"

"Mine was! At dinner!" Hermione exclaimed suddenly, then as if realizing she had spoken, she cringed in fear.

"Are you ok?"

 Hermione didn't reply, and only cowered more.

That's when the door of the office banged open and in barged Harry, Ron, Ginny, Jessica, Hagrid, and Dumbledore. With them were also two boys; Kadry and Gabriel. 

Hagrid hadn't had to go far to find any of them because they were all together.  Each of them had their own predicaments, but none were as bad as Aimee's and Hermione's.

Kadry and Gabriel had discovered that unknown things are best not toyed with the hard way. Kadry had become quite ghost like. You could see right through him. Gabriel had a similar problem, but not the same.  He appeared to be made of snow!! He looked like a skinny snowman that actually had legs!

Ron had problems as well. His hair had turned green; but it was no longer hair, it was leaves. Some sort of plant was growing from his head! What made it scary was that it looked an awful lot like a plant that the seventh years had learned about in their second year; the Mandrake.

Harry and Ginny had strange problems as well.

Ginny had grown beautiful wings. They made her look like an angel. Cleverly, she had put on a simple dress. She wasn't worried about them!

But Harry was worried about his problem. From waist up, he was almost normal, except that his skin had become scaly and around his head was a cobra's crest instead of his normal human features. From wait down, he had a snake's body. He looked rather distraught.

Jessica also had some problems to deal with. She came in, dressed in nothing but a swimsuit. Immediately, Professor McGonagall asked why.

"Because I shower in one and I didn't change when I ran to find Professor Dumbledore to show him this." Jessica stepped over to the washbasin by McGonagall's desk and ran some water into it. The second she put her hand into it, her lower body merged into one long blue-green tail, and her hair turned purple. Removing her hand reversed the effect. Everyone looked at her dumbfounded.

"Well, I guess the question is, what caused this?"

"I have a theory," Dumbledore replied. "Ron, are any of you brother's candies in the building?"

"I don't know."

"We found some candies in our room professor." Gabriel said quietly.

"Ahh. That would do it. So now we understand why everything happened."

"But, sir, we each only ate one candy. Why then would two things happen to me?" Aimee asked.

"Hmm. Well, you two switched places according to Hagrid."

Aimee nodded.

"Did Dobby get hurt?"

Hermione nodded.

"Then there's your answer! You are now Hermione and she is you. Her body becomes a house elf when Dobby gets hurt. But because it's not a gift from birth, but rather a spell, it happens to her soul, as well!"

"O my."

"I don't understand," Gabriel said.

Dumbledore smiled and turned to the boy.

"Basically, Hermione will become a house elf whenever she is needed as one, whether or not she is in her own body because the spell is connected to her spirit. However, it is still connected to her body so there fore, Aimee, as Hermione, also turned into a house elf. Because the fingers exchanged between Dobby and 'Hermy', or Hermione, are bodily changes, not spiritual changes, Aimee has Dobby's finger, not Hermione. That is why we could so easily detect what happened."

Silence filled the room as everyone took in what the Headmaster had just told them.

After about five minutes, Ron muttered to himself, "My brothers don't have to be here to cause trouble, do they?"

* * *

"Mommy?" Shirley asked.

"Yes, dear?"

"You weren't acting like you did as Hermy in the other story."

Hermione was shocked at the observation of her youngest daughter

"You're right, but then, I wasn't myself, was I?"

"No, I guess not." The little girl's furrowed brow told everyone in the room that she was thinking hard. "But Auntie Aimee doesn't act like that!"

"True," Aimee told her, "however this is now. I don't act like that NOW. When I was at Hogwarts, it was a different matter. My father was not one to be reckoned with. Your mother, as me, knew that he was going to be very angry, so was reacting to such fears. I, on the other hand, as Hermione, did NOT remember such things because Hermione would not know them, so was unafraid."

"Was your daddy scary?"

"No, just set in his ways."

"What happened when he learned?"

* * *

By mutual agreement, from the students involved, and the professors as well, it was decided that this was to be kept hushed. Professor McGonagall helped Aimee and Hermione revert to human forms, although she could do nothing about switching them back. Jessica's problem was more easily remedied. "Don't touch water near anyone else," was the strict order she received.

Ron's problem was relatively easy. Dumbledore taught him how to create illusion spells to make it appear as though his hair was normal. Ginny did a similar thing, only she used the spell to hide her wings.

Kadry, Gabriel, and Harry were harder to work out. A ghost like boy, a snow mad, and a serpent, they made a ridiculous trio. And their problems were not so easily covered.

Dumbledore had to teach Kadry a spell that was normally for ghosts; real ghosts. The spell makes it so that the ghost using it looks like he is alive, not dead. It was very hard for Kadry, but he figured it out soon enough. Gabriel had to become something other then snow. This task was even more difficult. But, someone found an answer. A charm was put on him to make him like the fabled Frosty the Snowman. The only added detail was color, to which end, they again used the ghost spell for the appearance of life.

Finally, came Harry's turn. No one knew what to do with him. Not only was he a large serpent, but he talked with a "Sisssss" in almost all of his words. But, suddenly, Aimee thought of something and ran out to the library. Within ten minutes, she was back again with a large book. "Look," she said, opening to a spot she had carefully marked. "He can become human on his own will. Harry's become a Naga, or half serpent, half human.."

She turned the book over and read from the pages, "Believed to be extinct, Naga are magical beasts with the upper body human and the lower body a serpent. They can, at will either become wholly snake or human and live off the land. Beware of the Cobra like Naga, however. He is the king of the nest and is the most feisty of the beats. It is believed that the species originated because of experiments with cross-breeding in the wizarding world because you can find any race of human and any species of serpent in these creatures."

Once again silence filled the room as everyone looked back and forth between Aimee and Harry. After a few minutes, Harry attempted to become completely human. It took a few tries, but in the end he was quite successful.

"Are you sure its not Hermione in there?" Harry said looking at Aimee amused. Aimee however looked angry and Harry felt kinda bad about saying that. 

"Well you should, Potter!" Aimee said. Harry looked at her in awe and she says explaining...sort of..."Don't say things in your mind you don't want heard."

Everyone in the room stared at her. Suddenly, Aimee froze, her mouth hung open and her eyes wide. She had just realized what she had done. She didn't know how she had done so, but she had. Aimee ran out of the room and down the hallway, very unsure of what was happening. 

She wasn't doing a good job of watching where she was going, either.

Bang! She fell onto the floor. "Granger, can't you watch where you're going?" sneered a male voice. She looked up to see Draco Malfoy standing above her, laughing with two other Slytherin goons, whose names she didn't know yet. 

After glaring at her and calling her rotten names that if they had known who she really was would not even be directed to anyone near her, never mind too her, they stalked off, leaving her sprawled on the floor.

A little while later Aimee found herself face to face with herself. It took her a minute to regain her composure, but she remembered that She and Hermione had switched places. Both girls were very unsure of them selves. They were trying to be themselves, as is instinct. However their bodies wanted them to act like each other. Although that was probably better for keeping the problem low, it did little good.

Meanwhile, Ginny and Jessica were wandering outside on the school grounds by the lake. "What good are you're brothers' spells if we don't use them?" Jessica demanded. Ginny shrugged her shoulders. She wanted to try to fly, too. 

"So, what are we waiting for?"

"Are you serious?" Ginny was shocked.

"Yep."

"We can't do that NOW!"

"Tonight then? You can fly around and I can take a swim."

"But what if someone catches us?"

"Who is going to see us?"

"I don't know…." Ginny trailed off, uncertain.

But later on, Ginny could hardly wait for dinner to be over so she and Jessica could sneak out and try their 'gifts' out.


	3. Troubles Return

CHAPTER 3

The two girls crept out later that night. Ginny went towards the darkest part of the school grounds, while Jessica went to the lake. They had come up with a secret call to use if the other needed help...from anything; some mysterious thing of the night, a professor, or even a friend. 

Ginny quickly jumped up into the air and started to fly around, the wind flipping her hair around her face. She had to stop herself from squealing in glee.

Meanwhile, Jessica lowered herself into the lake and dove down into the water; amazed at her ability to swim through the murky, dark water and yet still be able to see. 

Neither girl was really paying any attention to anything around them; not even each other. This proved to be disastrous. 

Within minutes, Ginny was lost. She couldn't see the castle from where she flew. It didn't help her any that not a single light was on. She tried to use her secret call to get Jessica's attention, but Jessica didn't respond. "She must not be able to here me," Ginny thought, beginning to panic. 

Ginny wasn't the only one with problems, however. Jessica had her own share of trouble. While swimming in the lake, she swam straight into a bunch of mermen. They absolutely did not want her to leave. Jessica also tried her secret call, but to no avail. She was too deep under the water to be heard, even if Ginny had been standing at the water's edge.

* * *

"Will they be ok?" Shirley asked, with a look of concerned fear on her young face.

"Don't worry, dear, everything will be fine," Aimee replied. Hermione smiled at her daughter. "What do you think is going to happen?"

"They're gonna get in BIG trouble!" she replied, matter-o-factly.

The adults in the room chuckled at the little girl's innocence.

"Well," Ron sighed, heaving himself out of his chair, "I believe that a certain group of six kids need to head to bed."

"NOOOO," came the reply from the youngest three girls.

"Ok, Uncle Ron," The twins said. 

The response from the only boy among them was a soft snore from where he was curled up on the floor.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the castle, back in the Gryffindor common room, Harry and Ron were having problems of their own. They had been sitting up, doing their homework when Ron's "hair" started to grow and his feet started to change. Aimee was sitting in the corner; instinct led Harry t turn around. Forgetting that Aimee was Hermione and vice versa, Harry called to her, "Help, Hermione! Ron's hair is changing!"

Aimee looked up and almost shrieked at the sight that lay before her. Ron was rapidly changing before their eyes. Because of the spell, she had Hermione's cool, and quickly emptied the large pot by the fire place that held crumpled up parchment that assorted Gryffindors had decided wasn't good. She opened the window and pulled out her wand. 

"Accio Soil," she said softly and directed the soil that came at her summons to the pot.

"Harry, we have to put him in the soil before he finishes changing," she said.

Harry looked at her with surprise and confusion.

"First of all, Harry, LOOK!" her face held an expression f fear, "His feet are turning into ROOTS!! Roots need soil to grow and survive!"

She grabbed one side of the rapidly changing boy. Harry quickly went to her aide and they put him in. Ron was too busy being bewildered at his sudden transformations to protest.

Aimee started scooping dirt over Ron's face extremely quickly, as his skin began to brown and wrinkle.

Aimee gave a sigh of relief, and turned back to Harry, "Second of all, look at the leaves on top of his head. They're MADRAKE leaves…YOUNG Mandrake leaves. Young, technically baby, Mandrakes scream and cry. Their cry is deadly!"

Harry looked at his friend and gulped. Now that he was thinking about it, and paying attention, he could tell. He recognized the leaves that were peeping over the top of the soil that hid his best friend as the leaves he had to work with when repotting Mandrakes in his second year Herbology class. "What are we going to do with him, Hermione? He's MUCH bigger then a normal mandrake." He asked, quietly.

She shook her head, "I don't know. But I guess we could water him, huh?"

Harry nodded and went to fetch some water.

Later the next morning:

Up in Dumbledore's office, Draco Malfoy was being reprimanded for causing havoc in transfiguration. Apparently, he had transfigured Professor McGonagall's hair into a mess of snakes. Much as it was not hard for her to revert her hair back to normal, he continued to mess around. 

"Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore said, "If you can't control yourself, you will have to be punished. Therefore, you will have detention tomorrow evening in the Herbology classroom. Professor Sprout needs help rearranging her plants for a rather large one will be in there soon."

Draco nodded and Dumbledore dismissed him, warning him not to be late.

However, just as Malfoy was exciting the office, he saw Hermione and Harry charge past him. They didn't even notice him. He decided he was going to figure out what they were up to, and as soon as the door closed behind him, he leaned his ear against it.

"Professor Dumbledore!" Aimee cried out.

"What is wrong, dear?"

"It's Ron," Harry spoke up.

"Already?"

"You know what happened?" Aimee asked, surprised.

"Yes, I do, dear," he rubbed his chin, "When did it happen?"

"Last night. We would have told you, but it was really late. Then we got up late this morning because we were up, trying to help him get his roots into soil, so we almost missed breakfast and had to run to class."

Draco couldn't figure it out. Get his roots into soil? Ron Weasley?

"Let's go get him and take him outside." Dumbledore was saying. 

Draco quickly shrank back into the shadows as the door opened and the three of them emerged into the hallway, talking about how they were going to get to the Herbology classroom with Ron.

Draco followed, close behind.

When they got to close to the Gryffindor Common room, Malfoy stopped and waited till they returned outside. When they came out of the portrait hole, Ron wasn't with them. What on earth is going on? Malfoy wondered, but followed them all the same. They soon were outside in the Herbology class room, Draco hiding behind some large, leafy plants.

"Professor Sprout. I'm very sorry, but he's here a bit earlier than expected."

The short, plump woman turned around. "Oh my. That's fast. It may be harder than I thought to change him back, if he's growing this fast. Look at that, we'll have to replant him soon, and I don't know if I have that large of a pot for him."

"We'll get you one, don't worry. Just keep him safe, alright?"

"Yes sir."

After the small group of students and professors left the Herbology classroom, Draco got up to investigate the large plant that they had been discussing.

He quickly realized it was a Mandrake and put earmuffs on his ears so that when he uncovered the overgrown plant, he wouldn't be able to hear its cry.

Grasping around the leafy stem emerging from the dirt, Draco jerked it up extremely hard.

It's mouth was wide open, so Draco could tell that it was screaming. But what he noticed more was how much like Ron Weasley this particular Mandrake looked. He repotted Ron and replaced the earmuffs, before carefully sneaking out of the greenhouse.

Meanwhile, Hermione was running around, looking for Ginny and Jessica. They had asked her to help them on their class work during break, which for the three of them, was right after lunch. Hermione hadn't seen them at lunch or at breakfast and was very worried. She decided that she was going to have to ask Harry and Ron for help, however, when she found Aimee and Harry, she discovered that Ron was out of commission.

That didn't stop the three of them from going outside to see if they couldn't find their friends.

Meanwhile, far away, Ginny was waking up. She was deep in the forbidden forest, lost. Suddenly, a beautiful white creature walked over to her. Ginny gasped; it was a unicorn! Its long, pearly horn was sitting upon its forehead, in the midst of the only part of the creature that wasn't white, other than its hooves and eyes; a golden star. The unicorn's hooves were the same color as the star and its eyes were such a brilliant blue, that they seemed like puddles of ocean water.

The unicorn beckoned to the girl, who gratefully followed her. Ginny wasn't sure how she knew, but she was positive that the unicorn was a girl.

Back in the depths of the lake, Jessica felt like she was in heaven.  The mermen who had found her last night had brought her to their village and she had yet to have seen a single mermaid. The mermen were treating her like a princess and she relished the attention.

However, she didn't know WHY there were no mermaids around, and if she had known, she might have been a little more concerned about what was going on. In fact she probably would have rathered the mermen to not be treating her so nicely!

Draco Malfoy was the last person Aimee wanted to see right about then. Hermione, Harry and Aimee had been searching for Ginny and Jessica all day, to no avail.

"Hermione Granger," Malfoy sneered.

Aimee at first didn't even react, but then he repeated it, stepping in front of her. That's when she remembered who she appeared to be.

"What do you want, Draco?"

"Well," he drawled, "I want you to come and talk with me."

Although Aimee did not want to have anything to do with him at the moment, she also did not want trouble. So she agreed to talk with him.

"But not right now. Maybe after dinner. I have to get to my last class."

Draco looked at her and nodded. "After dinner," he stated, firmly, "by the Great Hall. We'll meet there and go find an empty classroom together to chatter in."

With that, the mischievous blonde walked off towards his last class. Aimee tried very hard not to think about what sort of trouble she might have gotten herself into, but decided that she was going to go to this little 'meeting' well armed.

Back in the Herbology greenhouse, Ron was awake. He couldn't figure out why he was in dirt, but then he discovered that he could SEE in the dirt. Next, he discovered that he no longer had feet, but roots. O no. It can't be true. I can't be a plant. What type of plant AM I?

Just then, Professor Sprout came into the classroom and put on earmuffs. Then she started moving a very large pot towards Ron's pot. It had arrived during her last class of the day. She put some soil into the bottom of the new pot and then grabbed the top of Ron's foliage.

O my god! What is going on! Ron was scared, something had just grabbed him. Suddenly, POP! Ron Started to Scream as bright sunlight hit him, making him blind. He could feel the heat and he didn't like it. 

Professor Sprout looked over the Mandrake and was startled to see that he was already going into the Mandrake's 'teen' stages.

She repotted him into the larger pot, covered him in the dirt and went to tell Dumbledore of his fast development.

Ron was very happy to be back in the cool dirt. He noticed very quickly that his roots were not so cramped, and he relaxed. 

The unicorn was leading Ginny out of the forest as Harry was emerging from Hagrid's hut.

"GINNY!" he exclaimed, rushing to her.

"Where have you been?"

She couldn't help it and started to laugh. But then Harry's expression changed. She turned around to see what was wrong. There, where the Unicorn had been, was a young girl, with a tiny horn sticking out of the forest.

"Be careful, next time you spread your wings. You are not a true fairy-angel and the true ones are not always nice to those they feel are impersonating them."

With that, the girl merged back into a unicorn and walked away.

"Thank you!" Ginny called at the retreating unicorn.

Jessica looked at the handsome merman who swam up to her. His silvery tail glistened and matched his pale blue hair.

"Miss, would you come and swim with me?" he asked politely. "My name is Samanualelcitve, but you may call me Sam, if you wish."

Fascinated with his charm, she agreed.

The two mer-people swam out towards the center of the lake, chatting all the way of different things, like the lake flowers, of which he picked on of the prettiest ones and stuck it into her hair. 

Sam gently touched her check, and then said, "C'mon, we're almost there."

Jessica smiled, liking the feelings that aroused in her when the handsome merman touched her. Putting her hand over her check, as if to keep the feeling from escaping, she followed him into a beautiful well lit scene; a bed of gorgeous lake flowers.

"It's beautiful, Sam!" she breathed in the scent of the flowers as he led her to the center where there were refreshments.

He reached over and tapped on the top of a green shell. Music poured from it. "Care to dance?"

Up in the girls' 7th year dorms, Aimee was grabbing a little bag which she had stuffed with some of those creepy candies, her wand, and some little charms that could be used when she was ready for them.

She ran down to dinner, where she met up with Harry, Hermione, and…

"GINNY! Where have you been? Where's Jessica?"

"I don't know where Jessica is. Last I saw her, she was at the lake."

"What?"

"I tried to fly, she tried to swim. I got lost."

"O no. She's still in the lake, I bet."

"I hope she's ok," Hermione added, as the walked to the Gryffindor table.

"I'm sure she's fine," Harry said quickly. He had noticed Hermione's new, rather downcast attitude and did not what to shatter her ego.

During the student's dinner, Dobby was working on making more of his insane socks. He wanted to make some for Hermy and Keilley, (A/N: This is Aimee's middle name; Dumbledore told Dobby to call her by it.) but he was very confused as to who was who. He wanted to see them, but didn't know how. He'd never seen either of them in the Hogwarts Kitchen, before or since then.

He decided that he was going to leave the crazy socks in the Gryffindor common room because he was sure Harry Potter would give them to his friends. He just had to write a note to stick with the socks. Since he wasn't very literate, he settled with writing, or attempting to write, his friends' names on the piece of paper.

"Fer Hamry amb Cheliey" read the note.

After dinner, Aimee waited by the door of the Great Hall for Draco. When he finally came, she walked over to join him. 

"Good, Granger. I was afraid you wouldn't show."

"I'm good to my word, Draco." She replied, coolly.

"Well, lets go in here so we can talk privately."

Draco opened a door to an unused classroom and she went in before him.

After he had shut the door, he asked how she was doing and other normal questions. But she got frustrated and bite his line of words.

"Cut to the chase. What do you want?"

"I want to know why Ron is a Mandrake.:

Aimee gasped, "How'd you know?"

"I followed you from Dumbledore's office this morning. I looked."

Aimee's mind raced. Did he know about everyone else? Or just Ron?

"Well?"

Not trusting him, she looked up. "I don't know why."

He looked at her suspiciously, as she rummaged thru her bag.

"Why do you care? You don't even like him," she said  removing one of her charms from her bag. However, she dropped her bag by mistake as she tried to invoke the charm and its contents scattered across the floor. The greedy male that he is, Draco decided that he was going to eat one of her candies instead of helping her clean up. He reached down and picked up a candy wrapped in red foil. Aimee, who was busy cleaning up her spill, didn't notice as he put the candy in his mouth. Or at least she didn't notice…till suddenly he had transformed before her eyes.

"You stole one of those candies," she accused him. 

He stared at her, wide-eyed. "But…"

She glared at him and he shut up.

Aimee looked him over. His upper body was normal, only larger and his clothes had ripped of when he grew. She had to admit that he looked good. But his lower body was not normal. It had become that of a Palomino Stallion. He had become a centaur.

"C'mon. We have to get you to Dumbledore."

"LIKE THIS?" he exclaimed, "I'm NOT GOING OUT THERE!"

Down in the lake, the two mer-people were dancing. The beautiful music streamed throughout the area they were in. Jessica felt things she had never felt before as Sam entwined his tail with hers. He led her in a dance so graceful and beauteous that the lake flowers around her became a blur.

Suddenly, Sam wrapped his entire tail around her hips, with flexibility she didn't realize mer-people had. She quickly twisted hers into his, purely by instinct. As their dance came to a halt, they settled to the floor, panting. He held her close and asked her if she had enjoyed it.

Nodding she replied, "Yes, yes I did."

"Good." 

Sam reached his arms around her and turned her over, so that she was laying on her stomach on his. He entwined his tail with hers once again and once again, her instinct led her to follow suit, as a whole new bout of brand new feelings surged thru her.

* * *

"What's he doing?" Mira asked.

Aimee blushed. "You don't need to know."

Mira looked at her mom, "I bet I know!" and whispered hurridly into her twin sister's ear. The two girls started laughing hysterically, while the other kids looked at them in a befuddled manner.

"Tell us more!" Candi exclaimed. Beryl and his siblings were quick to agree.

* * *

Aimee lead Dumbledore down to the classroom where Draco stood, pawing the ground with his right fore hoof.

"Boy, what kind of trouble are you going to get into next?" Dumbledore muttered to no one in particular. "Well, Mr. Malfoy, it seems that you have joined the ranks of the misfit crowd."

Draco glared down at the headmaster.

"Now, then, glaring at me won't help. Aimee, go get Prfessor McGonagall."

Draco watched as Hermione left the room. "Dumbledore," he sneered, "That's Hermione."

"Now, then Draco Malfoy. When I want you to act like you know everything, I'll ask for you to. That was not Hermione, But Aimee. The candy you got into has touched more than just you in this school."

Well, Draco thought. He's lost it. Finally.

* * *

Down by the lake Ginny, Hermione, and Harry were looking for sighs of where Jessica might be. 

After about 20 minutes of searching, with out success, they were getting frustrated.

"Does anyone know what the candy Jessica ate looked like?" Ginny wanted to know. 

"It was blue and purple." Hermione answered.

Suddenly the three of them looked at each other, excited.

"Let's go see if there's another one like it!" Harry exclaimed, jumping up and charging back towards the school.

* * *

Sam was leading a very exhilarated Jessica back to the mer-village. "C'mon, dear. Let's get you home."

"HOME!" Jessica suddenly exclaimed, "I have to get back home!"

She started swimming away towards the surface, leaving an amazed Sam behind her. "Wait!"

She stopped and turned around.  "I'll come back," she promised him.

"Ok," he replied, watching her swim away. When he was out of hearing, he reprimanded himself. "They ALWAYS leave after we dance with them…That's why she was the only one around, all the rest have danced. She'll be back soon." He looked up where he had last seen her, but he no longer could see her purple hair or glimmery tail. "I just thought she would be different and that she would stay."

He shook his head and continued towards his home, unsuspecting who it was he had just danced with, or even WHAT she really was.

* * *

The transfiguration professor had no idea how to help Malfoy, so he was led outside with a lot of protesting to Hagrid, who was told to tell Malfoy how to be a centaur. What they eat and how, which is mainly grazing, to Draco's disgust. However they can't eat meat, which mad him even more upset. The two of them walked out towards the forbidden forest so Hagrid could tell him more about his equestrian parts…public and private.

* * *

Aimee ran to the Gryffindor common room. When she arrived, she found Hermione, Ginny and Harry looking for the candies.

"Uhm, I have them. Draco, greedy pig, ate one."

"He did?" Harry asked.

"Yep. He's outside with Hagrid now," she replied, walking to the window, "See? There he is!" She pointed to the two of them while her friends, forgetting their quest, looked out the window.

"O my!" Hermione exclaimed.

"He's learning how to….erm…remove his wastes!" Ginny chuckled.

Harry was laughing so hard that he couldn't even utter a word.

_2tigresa2_Meanwhile, a young, lost mermaid was trying to find the part of the lake that was within the school grounds. Finally finding it, she swam over and pulled herself out.  Noting that it was dark, she wondered just how long she'd been down there. She quickly  ran to the Gyffindor common room, where she slid on a bunch of socks.

CRASH!

Aimee and the rest turned away from the window, to find a wet Jessica on the floor, with socks around her.

 A little bit later, Hermione discovered that the socks were for her and Aimee. Jessica emerged from her dorm, dressed nicely.

Whistling a happy tune, she sat by the fire place to brush out her soaking wet hair, which had retained a purple tint, even though it was out of the water.

Hermione noticed. "What did you DO down there?"

"I met a wonderful merman!" she swooned. "We danced all night! It was pure heaven!" 

Aimee breathed in hard "You WHAT?"

Jessica sighed. "We danced."

Aimee charged out of the room, to find Hagrid; hoping he was done with Draco.

* * *

Draco was disgusted. He would be himself in no time. There was no way he'd need to, he shivered at the thought, graze. He eats fine meals, of meats and fish. He did NOT eat grass. And he CERTAINTLY did NOT need Hagrid to show him how to…do the unmentionables.

He galloped across the school yard, away from where anyone could see him.

He traveled around the edge of the forbidden forest for a while, not knowing what to do, but after a bit, much to his disgust, he got hungry. He attempted to eat a piece of steak, which he thieved off of Hagrid's table by reaching through the window when the man wasn't looking, but quickly discovered that he couldn't chew it very well...and when he finally had, he felt really sick the second he swallowed it; which was when he realized that it hadn't tasted very nice, either. As far as his pride held him, it did not hold him strong enough that he wouldn't eat. He galloped off, into the forest, where he found a small clearing. There, he grazed, filling his empty centaur stomach.

* * *

The next morning:

Hermione was sitting next to Aimee in potions class when, suddenly, she felt the all too familiar feeling of transformation once again. One second, the two girls were as normal as they could be, the next they were once again house elves, the third, they were in an empty class room, where Dobby was unconscious, once again.  Peering in the window, was Draco. Poor Dobby had been in the wrong room at the wrong time. Malfoy didn't want his former house elf to talk.

The two newcomers ran towards Malfoy, who had not expected two more house elves to appear the second he disposed of one. 

He ran and they returned to Dobby's side.

* * *

Jessica was in the Nurse's office. At breakfast, she had been given a note from Professor Dumbledore, expressing that Hagrid had concerns about her activities the day before and had recommended a check up by Madame Pomphrey.  She couldn't figure out why, but she wasn't exactly focused, either.

* * *

Sam paced in front of his home in the mer-village, waiting for the violet haired mermaid to return. Would she return? What if she didn't? She was different from the other mermaids he had met. She was more sweet, more innocent. He wanted her to come back so much that he was willing to go and search for her. But she had gone a strange direction. Was she a siren? A mer-being who could walk the earth and swim the sea, whose song could pull all men within hearing range right to her?"  Poor Sam didn't know what to think.

* * *

Harry was outside, with permission from the headmaster. He had been holding human form for so long, but it took great concentration. He needed a break. The Naga slithered out into the edge of the forbidden forest, and then around towards Hagrid's hut. But Hagrid had a class then, so Harry couldn't talk with him then.

Kadry and Gabriel saw Harry when he slithered by their Care of Magical Creatures class. Both boys felt lucky. They had each eaten another piece of candy, which eliminated the other candies affect. However, because f the new candy, they had a different, if not so bad, problem. This time, it was the same problem, because they had cut the candy in half. The two of them now had to worry about brushing their hair just right over tiny protruding horns, and their robes hid long skinny red tails with a point at the end. If one of them had eaten the entire candy alone, the effects might have been worse, but it was still not totally comfortable.

* * *

Draco galloped from the window, where he had left the three house-elves. Much to his surprise, he found himself deep in the forbidden forest. 

BANG! CRASH!

"Who are you, faux centaur?"

Draco turned about, startled by the unexpected baritone voice coming from whatever he had crashed into. It was another centaur! 

Bane looked disgustedly at the pale blonde impersonator before attacking him.

* * *

Emerald Stone sat in the hospital wing. Standing just in front of her was Madame Pomphrey, testing her. She had little doubts of a positive testing, but it had to be checked. Her mother would freak if she didn't make sure. It was. She was pregnant with Martin's merchild. Emerald was a siren, by birth. Her mother was a mermaid, her father a wizard. She was expected to dance with a merman in her 15th year, and she did. She was excited!. In just a handful of months, her own little pride and joy would flourish in the open air!

Meanwhile, Jessica was off in lala land, dreaming of Sam, the wonderful merman she had danced with. 

"Jessica?" Madame Pomphrey called. "You need to take your test next."

That got Jessica back into reality. "Test?"

"Your pregnancy test, dear."

"What do you mean?"

Emerald stood up. "You danced with a merman the other night, as a mermaid. That leaves you fair game to be carrying his child."

"What? Who are you? How'd you know what I did?"

"I'm Emerald. I, too, danced with a merman. I'm a siren, half mermaid, half witch. You need to test yourself. Then we go, with the headmaster's permission, to find our mermen. He's the one who sent me to find you and told me what happened."

Jessica looked the girl up and down. She was obviously a student wearing her Hufflepuff uniform. Jessica nodded and agreed to proceed. 

Emerald looked at the stunned girl. Just by how Jessica was acting, she knew it would test positive. After a few seconds, her assumption proved to be true.

* * *

About an hour and a half later, Jessica and Emerald walked to the lakeside and dived in. Emerald told Jessica about the culture as they swam to join in the ranks of other returning mermaids. Martin and Sam, who happened to be friends, came to the two girls at the same time. 

"Yes, Martin, It's certain," Emerald told the first merman to get to them. His shiny black tail matched his hair and complimented her rosy silver pink tail and hair. Sam looked expectantly at Jessica, who was very nervous. Emerald saved the day. "She's carrying your babe, Sam, don't worry. But she has something to discuss with you."

The merman looked at Emerald strangely and nodded, leading Jessica to a safe place, where she told him who she was.

* * *

Up on the surface of the lake, Harry was discovering that Naga could swim and that it was an interesting way to get fish for breakfast. He had seen Jessica and another girl dive into the lake and revert to mermaid forms, but Dumbledore, who had been watching nearby kept him from following.

"Don't worry, they'll be fine."

* * *

House elf troubles were brewing. Much as Professor McGonagall was attempting to revert the two girls to human, she wasn't doing any good. Dobby was conscious again, but he was very disorientated. "I guess you two will have to stay like this for now."

Both girls groaned. The professor looked at them with pity. "I'm sorry, there isn't much I can do."

* * *

Meanwhile, Ron was outgrowing yet another pot. Professor Sprout was concerned. He would be a fully grown mandrake soon! Then there might be trouble…


	4. House Elf Horrors

SO SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO UPDATE!!!

I hope you like this bit, even though it's short.

If you have any ideas, feel free to email me about them! 

Erm…o yea…none of these characters really belong to me… well at least not the ones in the books. they're JKR's…nor the settings…

Ok yea….

One more thing….

ENJOY!!!

^-^  meow

* * *

The three house elves ran out of the room. The two girls were very upset, and Dobby didn't understand why.

Later, they ran outside, to get away from Dobby, but he followed. 

Dobby followed the two girls outside towards Hagrid's hut, but they didn't stop there. The kept going, till they were at the edge of the forbidden forest. When they realized he was still following them, they ran into the forest, blindly. Within minutes, the two disconcerted house elves were lost, deep within the forest. Both very upset, and therefore not acting normal, quickly began to run farther into the forest out of fear. They wanted to get out, but succeeded at doing the exact opposite.

About three hours later, a creepy creature found them. "Heehee, pretties," it cackled, wiggling its gruesome, pea-green, wrinkly fingers at them. The girls looked at her with a mix of fear and disbelief. Was she real? She was so UGLY! But she started to sweet talk them and the two of them, against their better judgment, fell into her trap.

She led them farther into the forest, sweet talking them the entire time. The two girls, oblivious to the air of magic surrounding them soon became quite trustful of the creature. Little did they know that she was about to cause a living nightmare for the two of them.

* * *

At this time, Professor Sprout and Dumbledore were trying to figure out what to do with an oversized, over grown, Ron the Mandrake. It wouldn't be long till he was supposed to be in mandrake adulthood, which meant he would be sprouting seeds. However, although with some plants the female plant had to have reached its maturity to fertilize the seeds, the mandrakes needed no such growth and they absolutely did NOT need more Mandrakes in the green house!

* * *

Harry was himself again and out on the quidditch pitch, practicing with the snitch and entertaining an audience of first years who had never seen him play before. SWOOSH! He dived down, straight for the ground, and caught the snitch about ten inches from the ground, and SWISH!! Went straight back up. A chorus of "Oooos" and "Ahhhs" came from the onlookers.

* * *

Emerald and Martin were chatting enthusiastically with some of the other merpeople, while Jessica and Sam spoke with one another about who they really were. One of the little merchildren, maybe six years old, came over to find Martin. "Uncle Martin?" the merchild asked.

"Yes, Pearl?" 

She held up her middle finger and said, "I got a booboo," frowning.

Meanwhile, Jessica had just finished telling Sam about ho she had become a mermaid, and how she wasn't really one. She hung her head in shame, expecting him to yell at her, but he didn't.

"Don't you know, Jessica?" He asked her, "Once you become a magical being, like a mermaid, you are forever the magic being."

She looked up, surprised and startled. "But…"

Sam interrupted her by putting his pointer finger to her lips. 

"Shush, a second. Besides, I'm not who you think I am, either."

He watched her, waiting for a reaction. She looked confused, other then that, she didn't react. He continued. 

"I was a normal human boy once, as well, but I ran away from home around seven years of age. I ran and ran, until I eventually found the forest that surrounds this lake. I'm not even a magical person, I'm muggle born. However, I met this… this creature," He spat out, "who tricked me into believing that she was going to help me. I knew I didn't want to return home. My mother was a druggie, and my father, a drunk. Well, in a way, she appeared to help me; she fed me, clothed me, and more. But then one day, she wanted me to find a piece of treasure under the waters of this lake. She transformed me into a fish; a non magic being that could be turned human again. I found this treasure, but I also discovered that without this treasure, the merpeople couldn't survive and therefore, I refused to take it out. She couldn't come and get it, the water burned her skin and she could only transform others, so she transformed me into a merboy, informing me that if I wanted to help these merpeople so much, that I had to die like one when she finally got 'her' treasure. So now, I protect it. I was tutored by some of the best merpeople under the lake in such magic and learned that even if I wanted to, I could never return to the surface. At least you can do that much."

Jessica looked at him, amazed.

* * *

Draco wasn't having much fun, either.  Bane had tackled him, and he was on the ground. Bane glared at him and began to question him as to who he was and why he was there. However, a true centaur could never lie, and it was obvious that Draco was lying.

"I wasn't grazing here! Honest!" 

Bane looked at him in disgust. About twenty minutes of demands and questions from the older centaur brought Draco near to tears, but he was saved (A/N Lucky him…) from further torment because Hagrid appeared and told Bane to leave him alone. "He's had a terrible mishap with magic. Let him be." Bane looked disgruntled, but let Draco up. 

"He's been transformed by misfit magic," Hagrid continued, "He's one of the students at the school."

At this, Bane began to laugh hysterically. "Not anymore, he's not!"

Hagrid looked horrified. "You mean the rumor is true? That he can't…" he trailed off.

"No, he can't!" Bane laughed and galloped off. 

"Have fun, boy, for you'll not get back to your normal self for a Very long time!" Bane called over his shoulder. 

"What does he mean, Hagrid?" Draco demanded.

"You can't change back," the man whispered.

"Ever?"

"Ever."

* * *

Hermy and Keilley followed the creature deeper and deeper into the forest. Suddenly, she stopped and showed them the entrance to her home.

"Well, pretties. I bet you want help with all those people at the school who are laughing because you've become house elves." 

Since the two of them had pretty much been brain washed, they agreed right away.

"Well, then, I am willing to help you fix this problem. I'll give you a charm to cast on the students of your choice and help them decide not to be so mean."

The girls did not even hesitate in liking the idea.

"But I have a price; you must help me get back something that was taken from me."

Neither girl could disagree with this idea.

So, therefore, about twenty minutes later, they found themselves back at the school, with a special charm.

* * *

Jessica quickly swam up to Sam, and gave him a big hug. "I'm sorry," she said.

"Hey, it's not your fault!"

"No, but I should have told you the truth from the start…"

"So should have I."

* * *

Keilley ran ahead of Hermy, a little unsure of what they had just agreed to do. However, she was quiet willing to stick to then plan when she saw Kadry headed straight for them. He looked like he was laughing at her. In reality, he wasn't, he was laughing at Gabriel. But, Keilley still threw the charm at him. Hermy also threw a charm, but she threw it at Gabriel. Neither boy had even seen the two of them, so neither was suspecting anything to happen. 

Yet, something did happen. The charms did their work and suddenly, there were four house elves in the grass.

About an hour later, the two girls had made their way about the school. Any time they saw anyone laughing, they assumed they were laughing at them. Within that hour, there went from only two transformed elves, to almost three dozen.

Suddenly, they ran into Draco, from behind. He was laughing at a trio of house elves in the yard who were running in circles—and got hit by the charm as well. However, he became half elf, half centaur. The poor guy couldn't even pretend to understand what had happened!

Another three hours later found almost every student on the grounds as a house elf, and several teachers. In fact, Ron and Professor Sprout were, as well. It helped Ron, in away, because he was no longer a mandrake, but…

Dumbledore couldn't figure out what was going on. He got Harry from the quidditch pitch, and the audience of first years followed them. Dumbledore quickly figured it out, however, because he was next. Hermy flung the charm at him with such force that it caught every person there.

* * *

Meanwhile, below the lake, Jessica and Sam were enjoying themselves immensely. They were playing games with each other, and the other merpeople, oblivious to the happenings above. 

Later that evening, they went to get some food, but Emerald stopped them. 

"It's time for Jessica and me to get back home."

"Can't we eat together first?"

Emerald decided to agree, which was good, because just about the time they would have gotten to the surface, they would have been struck by Hermy's charm. After they had eaten, they quickly swam to the surface. Sam and Martin went with them, to see them off.

"G'nite, Ladies," Martin said, giving Emerald a kiss on the cheek.

Sam was not so modest; he gave Jessica a full kiss on the lips.

When the two ladies broke the surface, they were welcomed by a frightening scene.

Harry, now half serpent, half house elf was right at the waters edge with a few select house elves from amongst the student body, backs to the mer-people. An onslaught of house elves, led by Keilley and Hermy were steadily coming towards them. Jessica was terrified. What was going on?

Sam gasped, suddenly, noticing a figure in the back of the crowd of house elves. "LOOK!" he exclaimed, pointing. There, in the back, Jessica saw the most evil and foul looking creature she had ever seen. She quickly pointed I out to Emerald, who replied, "Now I know who has those two elves in the front under a spell. Look at them; they don't know what they are even doing."

"We have to stop them; that's the creature who turned me into a merman for refusing to steal the mer-people's treasure and life force."

"O boy," Jessica muttered.

Emerald looked at her, strangely. "You have an idea of what to do, don't you?"

"Yea, but it won't be pretty."

"Well, tell us."

Jessica responded by summoning the two of them back underwater so they wouldn't be over heard. "We have to get into the castle. The candies that made me this way are in there…and we can get them to affect her and THAT might just break her concentration to release Keilley and Hermy."

"But where did all these house elves come from? Surely there is more here then there are normally," Sam asked.

"I don't know."

"We can find out, though," Emerald replied, "If we remove the spell from the two girls, they can tell us."

"Sounds good. But how do you propose we get past them?"

"That's where my plan gets quite messy."

* * *

"AHA!!! I know what they were doing now," Candi exclaimed, suddenly. She had been sitting there with a thoughtful expression for quite a while, and her outburst made Hermione, who was presently the story teller, jump.

"They wer-"

"The younger children do NOT need such information at this time, dear," Aimee interrupted, firmly. 

"What was it?" Beryl asked, his insatiable curiosity getting the better of him.

"You do NOT need to know, young man."

"But Mommy!!!!!"

"No 'But Mommying' me."

Beryl started to pout, but quickly stopped when he caught his father's look.

The children quickly started messing around because of the interruption, and that's when the adults looked at the time.

"O my, it's nearly midnight!" Hermione stated in surprise.

Aimee quickly joined her and they herded the children off to bed.

When the two of them returned downstairs, they faced a special surprise.

Harry and Ron had set up a charming candle light Dessert table for four, with cake and ice cream. In the center of the table were two dozen red roses. 

"Happy Valentine's Day, Ladies," the two gentlemen said simultaneously.

The two women smiled and joined their spouses for a late night dessert.

* * *

Jessica whispered to her friends her idea, then they began working on getting into the castle.

Sam got up to distract the creature, while Jessica and Emerald swam towards the other side of the lake.

Martin quickly went to assist Sam.

* * *

Meanwhile, the horde of confused house elves moved closer and closer to the lake, not realizing how close they were too it. Many of them were literally transformed into the elves and had no knowledge of being other then house elves. The few that retained their normal memories were so spread apart from each other that they did not realize that there were others…and were far enough apart that they couldn't persuade those around them of what was going on. Although it was not for lack of trying, they did not succeed. 

Among those who retained their normal memories, were a few first years who were very confused and not used to such adventures. They noticed the danger of getting to close to the water's edge and went to the back of the mob, which is how they finally got together.

They were a small group, maybe five. They were just about to try to work out what they could do cause they knew that they were in a fix, when the creature that was pushing the crowd of house elves towards the lake suddenly was quite distracted…in fact, she screamed. Loudly. In rage. 

She instantly recognized the boy who had refused to help her the first time she had attempted this endeavor and was disgusted at his return. The mermen should have destroyed him ages ago…mermen were well known for their destructive powers and hatred for mermen from different mer-tribes. He would be a very destructive person against the cause she led if she couldn't revert him, or better yet, destroy him!

Meanwhile, all the house elves were continuing to get closer to the waters edge, when the little group of elves who remembered who they really were suddenly remembered a spell as well. They instantly set about casting it together, deciding to perform the spell together, so that it would have more force, and more effect. 

A large circle of pale blue light suddenly encircled the group of house elves. It sat there for a few seconds before exploding in a blast of dark green light. Hermione and Aimee looked at each other, saw the other in front of them as themselves as house elves…and suddenly remembered all that had happened.


	5. The Creature

CHAPTER 4

Jessica, Sam, Martin, and Emerald quickly swam to the other side of the lake where there wasn't a horde of house elves and the two girls quickly climbed out and reverted to their human forms.

"Hurry back," Martin called after their retreating forms.

Sam watched Jessica run, her long violet hair whipping behind her as she ran. Martin looked over at his friend, amused. 

"You really found someone special, Samanualelcitve, didn't you?" Martin asked his best friend, smirking.

Sam's response was to playfully punch Martin's arm.

The two mermen started wrestling playfully, which could never have been at a worse time for them…

* * *

The creature watched the blue bubble burst in horror. Who could have cast the spell? Her charm was to make the students house elves….without knowledge of their true selves….

But, she let it go…there was no changing what was done. She quickly came up with a handful of new ideas as she saw Hermione and Aimee came running towards her, with looks of disgust on their faces.

"Well, my pretties," she said to them, "you must have discovered what you have done. Now your _dear_ headmaster will have to punish you, now won't he?"

The two girls feigned horror.

"Well, then, I can help you…but only if you finish your part of our bargain."

She watched them, as the looked at each other with calculating looks. Finally, Aimee turned to her and asked, "What if we refuse?"

* * *

Emerald rushed to keep up with the Gryffindor girl, as Jessica led the way to her common room.

"C'mon, Emerald! Dumbledore won't care if you enter our common room, if its for a good reason, and this defiantly constitutes as a god reason!"

The two girls quickly got to the Portrait hole and Jessica gasped out the password.

"Be careful, dear," the Lady in the painting called after them.

Jessica grabbed Emerald's hand and pulled her into the room. "Find a bag of candy, but DON'T eat ANY of it!"

Emerald started looking while Jessica charged to her dorm room.

* * *

Draco had come out of his daze the second the bubble had popped, and quickly, he galloped out of there, amazingly unnoticed. However, he galloped by the lake and came up to the two mermen, and almost ran right over them!

The two mermen looked up in horror as Draco reared and neighed quite loudly, startling even himself. They dived into deeper water and swam back to the surface to figure out what was going on.

Draco, for once in his life, came back to them, "I'm sorry. I didn't see you two."

Sam sat there shocked. He'd slowly been learning about the magical world, but this…creature…was too much for him.

Martin, however, asked Sam's silent question, "Who…What…are you?!"

At this comment, however, Draco bristled. His temporary kindness evaporated.

"I am Draco Malfoy, of one of the most notable Wizarding families." He said in a rather superior tone.

"If you are Draco," Jessica commented, coming up behind him, "then one, you have a lot to learn and two; you are no longer a wizard. Centaurs cannot be wizards. Sorry."

Sam looked up and instantly popped out of his surprised daze. "Jessica! Did you guys get the stuff?"

"What stuff?" Draco sneered.

"The stuff to kill that horrendous creature's House elf spells," Emerald told him coolly, "Either help us out by being quiet so as not to draw attention to us, or go away."

He huffed at her, but didn't leave.

"Yes, Sam, I have the things we need. Let's go!"

* * *

The two girls became scared for real when the old hag smirked at them and told them, "then you'll be pretty house elves permanently."

Aimee gulped and stopped Hermione from turning and running. "What do you want us to do?"

"Ah. Now that's more like it! Deep in the bottom of that lake is something that those terrible mer-folk stole from me. I want it back."

"What is this thing?" Aimee asked?

"It is a precious jewel like none other you will ever see. It glows like the sun in the deepest darkness and shines like rainbows. I will personally assist you in going under the water to retrieve it."

"And why don't you go get it?"

The creature looked at her, and then chuckled. "My dear, can you see an old thing like me swimming?"

Neither responded, so the hag led them to waters edge, never suspecting what was next to happen.

* * *

Martin and Sam swam below the lake, knowing that the hag would once again attempt to send someone down to steal the crystal. Sam went down to guard the gem while Martin went to patrol the waters.

Meanwhile, Jessica and Emerald went to find the hag and Keilley and Hermy; knowing they would probably find all three together, since Draco informed them that the two house elves had been turning the school into house elves.

* * *

Harry was getting worried…he didn't know why Hermione…No, Aimee…would try to turn him into a house elf…she had looked so mad at him…until then he hadn't realized how much her friendship meant to him. Harry suddenly decided he was going to go find her and make sure she was ok.

He slithered out into the throng of house elves, not caring who saw him. He only cared that he find her.

Aimee was quietly following the crone towards the edge of the lake, with a whimpering house elf trailing behind her.

Finally, she could take it no more and she stopped. "HERMIONE! Stop whimpering. It'll be ok. What's wrong?"

But Hermione didn't get a chance to answer because the hag grabbed their arms and dragged them to the edge of the lake.

Yet, before the evil creature got even the slightest chance to send the two into the lake to find the treasure she coveted, four things happened at once.

One was Martin and Sam jumped up into the air from the water and grabbed the two elves and swam away from the monster, holding the girls just high enough above the water that they wouldn't get wet. The next was Harry colliding into the creature because he was trying to get to Aimee who suddenly wasn't there. The third was the hag falling into Emerald and Jessica, and their candies spilling all over the place.

And finally, the fourth thing stunned everyone there.

As the first three things occurred, one of the many house elves walked up to the scene very quietly. But this elf was different from the others. He was more serious. And it didn't take long to figure out why…..

Suddenly, the elf began to grow very rapidly, and change into a human. He was quickly revealed as Dumbledore; and even before he had finished transforming back into himself, the students around him saw a side of him they would have much preferred never witnessing.

His face turned nearly purple with rage as he grasped the quivering creature's arm and yanked her up.

"You have disrupted this school for the last time, wench!" Too all the witnesses surprise, his voice remained calm and quiet the entire time, unlike his expression, which scared everyone present.

Hermione sat whimpering on Martin's shoulders, so Aimee reached over to comfort her.

"It'll be ok, Hermy, don't you worry."

Everyone watched  as Dumbledore pointed his wand at the hag and demanded that she undo ALL her wicked spells.

She looked at him mischievously and murmured slyly, "ALL of them?"

"Every last one that affect us here at the school. NOW!"

"OK, you asked for it!"

She gave him an evil grin and suddenly all the house elves, except for Hermione and Aimee were themselves again. But that wasn't all…

"HELP!" Aimee cried, "House elves can't swim!!!!" but she was suddenly grabbed from behind.

"Hold on to me," gasped Sam, "I've got to get us to the shore."

Martin quickly came to his friend's aide and helped Aimee grab hold. Then he swam with Sam, helping him stay afloat with the added weight.

Harry quickly swam out, very glad now, that he had discovered that he could swim as a Naga. "Get on my back," He hissed at Sam and Aimee, "You, too, Hermy."

With that, he swam the three of them to shore, while Martin swam behind, making sure none of them fell off.

* * *

"What happened to Sam, Mummy?" Beryl asked Hermione.

"Well, the creature removed the spell she had placed on him, as well, because he was there, and affecting someone in the school. She was very disgusted when Harry saved the two of them because she had hoped that with them drowning there would be enough havoc that she could get away. However, that ploy failed and she had to reckon with Dumbledore."

"But what happened to him?"

"He became human again, like he was born."

"Oh. But I thought he couldn't be changed back."

"He can't."

"But then how cou-"

"Shush…don't interrupt, you're question will be answered in good time."

_Groan…._

* * *

Dumbledore watched the group coming from the middle of the lake and abruptly faced the creature, with a look on his face that would scare the scariest giant. "You have caused enough trouble for this school!" with that, he pointed his wand at her, muttered some sort of incantation, and suddenly a cage appeared around her. When she grabbed at the bars of the cage, she jumped back, in pain.

"That isn't a good idea; neither is magic," Dumbledore told her, "that cage will shock you when you do either."

The students watched these strange occurrences in awe of the headmaster, and finally, Draco, of all people...or centaurs, for that matter, came up to him. "What are you going to do with that...that hag, Sir?"

"What do YOU think we should do to punish her, Draco?"

The young centaur looked at Dumbledore, surprised. "You want my opinion?"

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy, I do."

"Well…."

Dumbledore smiled at him, watching the young man ponder what he thought was suitable punishment.

"I'd say she ought to be sent to wherever Aimee's father sends people who disobey his laws because her attack was directed through Aimee."

"Wise idea, centaur," a booming voice said behind Draco, making him jump.

"Ahh, Duke Poruddine. I knew we'd be hearing from you soon." Dumbledore greeted the man behind Draco and offered his hand. As the two men shook hands, Draco looked at the newcomer, who was rather short and stocky, but was a rather kindly looking fellow.

"Your Aimee's Father?" Draco asked in surprise.

"Yes; and speaking of my daughter, where is she?"

Aimee and Hermione looked at each other in fear, and ran towards the school. But even then, they didn't escape Dumbledore's notice.

"I believe, sir that she is inside the school presently. Why don't you join us all for dinner? Come, you can join me and I'll show you around the school. You can see her then."

Mr. Legalador nodded and followed the Headmaster towards the school. Dumbledore stopped by the rest of the group of misfits. "Tell Aimee and Hermione that Mr. Legalador is here and would like to see his daughter at dinner. And don't you lot worry, everything will be sorted out soon enough."

Harry nodded, instantly glad he had reverted himself to human form before the headmaster had passed their little group.

"What are we going to do?" Jennifer said. "They haven't figured out how to revert to normal yet!"

Harry looked at them thoughtfully. "I think I may have an idea…Where's Ginny?"

"I don't know," Jennifer said.

"I'll go find her," replied Emerald.

"Good. Go find her and everyone meet me in the Gryffindor common room as soon as you can. Martin, can you revert to human like Emerald?"

"No," Martin shook his head.

"Alrighty then; Accio tub!" Harry said, waving his wand. Suddenly a large tub, filled with water, that looked as though it might have come from the prefects bathroom appeared in front of the two of them. "Get in."

After Martin climbed in, with Harry's and Draco's help, Harry said the levitation charm and towed the tub to the common room.

Someone got Ron, along the way, as well as Kadry and Gabriel and soon, everyone involved, including Draco, was in the Gryffindor Common room, shooing other Gryffindors out of the room.

* * *

"What's _Draco _doing in the Gryffindor common room?"

"Now shush. Just because he was in there doesn't mean he learned the password; Harry had the door open so he could enter…along with the other non-gryffindors."


	6. The Duke Of Poruddine

A/N : No, I still don't own anything but the plot, but you know that….Sorry I haven't updated!!! I lost my login L

I DID create a new account, which I still intend to use, however, not for the original reasons…lol

It's

BJB's Princess

If you care…lol

OOOkay…short, I know, but better then nothing…I have a new job now that eats up the majority of my time…and my fiancé gobbles up the rest of it. LOL

SOOOO Enjoy, have a Happy Thanksgiving (for those who celebrate it) and I'll update as soon as I can!

* * *

"What's _Draco _doing in the Gryffindor common room?"

"Now shush. Just because he was in there doesn't mean he learned the password; Harry had the door open so he could enter…along with the other non-gryffindors."

"But Draco is_ MEAN!_" Beryl exclaimed.

"Not always, dear."

* * *

While Harry was using his Knowledge of Fred and George's candies along with his knowledge of the Defense against Dark Arts to help Aimee and Hermione, Andrew Legalador was following Albus, who was touring him around the school.

Andrew was beginning to heavily regret scolding his daughter when she had begged him to let her come here…But he still wasn't glad he had let her come. With the reports he had gotten, she was in some sort of mess, and with what he had come in with only proved it.

It had seemed only yesterday that he had been fighting with her about how she would do better to not go to rubbishy schools. But she had insisted and sabotaged his list of potential tutors for her. So, in the end, he had grudgingly allowed her to attend Hogwarts, since it was the closest to home.

But the evening she was supposed to start her journey to the school had been disastrous! She had refused to have her Father or his guards come with her. "I don't need the fanfare," she had told him, "and that's all you will give me."

Later that evening, Hermione walked quietly into the Great Hall. Everyone's eye was on her…and she felt unsure of herself. She was afraid of Aimee's Father, and she was afraid she would not do too well posing as Aimee so that the Duke would believe she was Aimee. No matter how much Aimee or Harry told her she'd be fine, she didn't believe them.

Thankfully, however, Harry's idea had worked and both girls were human again. She looked up at the head table, watching Mr. Legalador apprehensively. But it was inevitable…he summoned her up to see him…and she slowly changed directions from her course to the Gryffindor table…to the head table.

Hermione didn't really know why she was so afraid of Aimee's Father…and Aimee had never explained either. But she did know that she was afraid…and probably had reason to be afraid. She watched the Duke's expression as he followed her progress up to the head table.

"Aimee!" he exclaimed, embracing her, "How are you, daughter?"

"I-i-i…I'm fine," was Hermione's simple reply. "Uhm…Hoe are you, Father?"

The man gave her a strange look and she looked into his eyes....they were very calculating…and that scared her even more.

Andrew looked into the eyes of the girl standing before him. There was fear in her eyes…why was his own daughter afraid of him? But suddenly…it was clear to him. She had called him "Father" and Aimee never called him "Father"

"You're not Aimee," he said quietly. The girl's eyes went wide. "No. You are not my daughter," He said again. Hermione shook her head ever so slightly.

"No, I didn't think so. Where is my daughter? Where is Aimee?" Andrew asked, loudly. The entire Great Hall was suddenly quiet as he scanned the crowd.

Aimee's eyes went wide when she heard this, and she started trying to creep towards the exit. But, her father found her soon enough and abandoned the frightened Hermione for Aimee.

"What is going on here, Aimee? Who is the girl who is impersonating you? Is she the one whom you are impersonating? Stop impersonating each other this instant!" Andrew's voice got louder and more commanding with each word he said.

"We can't," was all she said, staring him straight in the eye.

"What do you mean, 'We can't'?" he was practically shouting by then.

"We can't change back, Sir. We don't know how yet. We're working on it still."

Andrew's face turned a deep shade of purple and he went and grabbed the arm of the cowering girl he had first encountered. "Who are you?"

"H-h-her-mi-ione-e."

"Stop it, Sir! You are frightening her!"

"What has she to be frightened of!?!"

"She has BECOME me, Sir! She is afraid of YOU!"

With that being said, Aimee grabbed Hermione's arm and pulled the trembling girl close.

"What…What do you mean?" He asked, lowering his voice.

"She is me, now Sir, and I am her. But she hasn't grown up as me. She knows my worst memories and fears. All of them," she stated, pointedly.

"Even…"

"Even the memory of my mother… who now, is HER mother. Even the memory of how I.. or better yet, of how SHE got here. Of every thing you have done in my... now her presence. Of everything."

Andrew looked at the bushy haired girl in front of him, stunned. "But.. I-i-i… I didn't think you remembered that…"

"How am I to forget it?"

Dumbfounded, he only shook his head.

"That is why I refuse to inherit your fortune."

Andrew looked up suddenly, shocked, "Refuse to…But you can't! You are my DAUGHTER! YOU WILL TAKE YOU'RE RIGHTFUL PLACE AS DUCHESS OF PORUDDINE!" He exclaimed, screaming at the top of his lungs.

At about that time, Dumbledore came over and lead the hysterical man away from the two girls. Professor McGonagall came over then, to help the two girls back to the Gryffindor common room. "You were very brave, standing up o him like that, ladies," she shook her head, "Very Brave."


	7. The Solutions

"What are all the memories that Hermione was now holding?" Mira asked, quietly.

Aimee paled slightly.

"It doesn't matter too much with our story, dear," Hermione said, holding Aimee close, "What is important, you will know before our tale ends."

"Why did you choose to not be a Duchess?" the child continued.

"Because," came the quiet reply, "I did not share my father's views."

* * *

Shortly after that, students began pouring into the Gryffindor common room. Many were not even Gryffindors. They had come to help Aimee and Hermione switch back to themselves.

"The task will not be easy," a young girl said quietly, with a tiny horn, "but if everyone works together, I can be done."

Ginny went to the two girls. "This is my friend, Unella. She helped me before, and upon learning of your plight, came to help."

Unella gathered all the volunteer students into a circle around the room, mixing he different houses, and having them link arms in a never ending knot; the two girls in the center.

Ever so softly, the unicorn-girl began o chant a soft song with words no human ears could comprehend. It slowly grew in volume, and a ring of iridescent light encircled the group. Slowly, it shrank, closer and closer to the two girls, hugging in the center, until the two of them were completely enveloped in the brilliant light.

Aimee felt as if she were leaving her body and floating away from the ground, but suddenly, the light burst and she was flung into the wall of students surrounding her.

"What just happened?" Hermione asked.

Aimee looked up at her friend and smiled, "Look, Hermione! You're YOU!"

Hermione looked up at Aimee in disbelief, but as soon as she peered at her hand, she knew it was true.

The two girls jumped up enthusiastically and embraced each other.

"Excuse me," a soft voice pulled them from their celebrating.

"As soon as the others break their knot, you will again become each other…but you will be able to revert to normal on your own. For it to work for real, you must do it on your own. Or else, you will be stuck as each other permanently."

The two girls looked at each other. "How?" Aimee asked.

"You should know, Aimee." Came the only response, and the unicorn girl nodded to the others to undo their knot. No bangs of flashes of light showed the two girls becoming each other again, but everyone present could tell it was so.

Suddenly, Aimee grabbed Hermione's hand and stared directly into her eyes. "Forever two and ever one, we're now sisters who can never be undone!"

The two girls smiled at each other.

Jessica looked at them, from one to the other, "Are you two yourselves now?"

"Oh, yes," Hermione said, smiling, "and forever bonded as magical twins."

* * *

The duke was brought to Dumbledore's office, once he calmed down, and Aimee was summoned up there as well.

"I trust, young lady, that you are within your own body, now?" The Headmaster asked her, upon her arrival.

"Yes, sir," Aimee stated, nodding.

"Then you and your Father have something to discuss, I believe. I will leave you two here. Fawkes is a good mediator, I think." With that, Professor Dumbledore left his office.

Taking a deep breath, Andrew looked his daughter in the eye, "Why do you refuse your title?"

"Because I cannot stand up to what I believe is wrong."

"What do you mean?" he asked, afraid of her answer.

"You're flags stand for death, in my eyes. I see those beasts because I saw my mother die. You see those beasts because you saw millions die. And all these died…at your hand. I cannot uphold that these things are righteous. And I cannot live by such immorality."

"You…you…" Andrew took a deep breath, "you saw you're mother die?"

"I saw her die. At the hand of your right hand man. Yet you never mourned for her. I cannot stand for that.

"I also cannot stand for the way you sent me here as a little wretched girl, and yet sent those three boys after me, because you did not get your way. You thought to scare me home. You failed. I will stand for what is right. And I will not stand for that which I know is wrong.

I will always be your daughter. I will always be a duchess, whether or not I wish to be, but I will never claim your title, rank, or flag. They stand for Death; I stand for Life."

* * *

"Did you're daddy ever forgive you?" Shirley wanted to know.

"I don't know," Aimee said quietly, "but he talks to me now."

* * *

Shortly after that encounter, the Duke left the school, Never to return. He gave Aimee a house near the Weasley's to live, with strict orders that she never again enter his home.

Right before the end of term feast, Dumbledore was able to cast a spell on the entire school to make it so that all of the Hag's charms could not return without a desire for them too. Dumbledore even found away for Draco, Harry, Kadry and Gabriel to be restored to normal. Neither Jessica or Ginny would let him remove their new gifts, and Ron had no further fears of becoming a mandrake for the Hag's charm had counter the candy's charm.

That left only Sam. Dumbledore walked to the lonely boy who didn't belong in the school.

"I know you feel out of place here, young man. You are not a wizard, and never could be. Yet, you feel uncomfortable with the concept of going back into the muggle world, I am sure, especially since you have just spent ten years as a magical creature; never mind having a child of the magic realm on its way. Am I right?"

Samanualelcitve nodded in agreement, not sure what to do.

"Would you like to go back to the lake, Sam?" Dumbledore asked him, knowingly.

"Would I ever be able to really be with Jessica?" the young man asked, hesitantly.

"We could help you become a creature like she is now, so you could be on land or sea."

"Really?" Sam perked up at the thought. "How?"

Dumbledore quickly summoned Jessica and Emerald to him, and the four of them went out to the lake.

Dumbledore sent Emerald to get Martin, and turned to Jessica.

"This young man wants to be able to share both of your worlds, Jessica. Will you help him regain the one he has lost?"

Jessica turned to Sam, surprised. "Really? You want to share my world?"

Sam nodded, "I want to share your life, and that of our unborn baby."

Jessica, completely overjoyed, lounged at him, hugging him. "How can I help?"

Dumbledore Smiled and led the young couple to the water where Martin and Emerald awaited them, holding between them a beautiful gemstone.

Jessica gasped. "That's the stone that that creature wanted…isn't it?"

Sam nodded. "Jessica, will you join souls with me, in the fashion of the merfolk?"

Jessica gasped in surprise. "Of course I will!"

Dumbledore, having known that that was going to be her answer, had already summoned her parents to the school, and they presently were arriving at the lakeshore, in time to hear this. Jessica didn't even notice their presence.

Sam and Jessica stared into each other's eyes, while holding each other close. Emerald, using the magic of the gem, gently pulled the two if them into the water. Then, Martin positioned the gem directly beneath the two of them and yanked it straight down into the water.

A flash of garnet light emitted from the stone, and the young couple burst up into the air with a fountain of water holding them aloft, two young merfolk, holding each other tight, oblivious to the red light that encircled them.

Suddenly, they were back in the water. That's when they noticed that Sam had his fin back, and that Jessica's parents were there.

Jessica looked at Sam, and then quickly ran out to her parents.

"Sam?" Martin whispered to his friend, "You can join her."

"I can? But, I'm a merman again…"

"Yes, but she shared her soul with you…and you two can share both worlds. Go on, greet your new parents."

Sam beamed and quickly joined those on the water's edge.

Jessica looked nervously at Sam, and then at her parents. Grabbing her husband's hand she turned to them, "Mom, Dad, This is Sam, and he is the father of my baby."

"You're baby? You're pregnant?" her mother exclaimed, but upon looking at her daughter, she could see that it was so, and nearly fainted.

* * *

A few days later, all the students were leaving the school. The end of term feast had commenced, all the seventh years had graduated, and summer was at hand.

A few weeks into the summer, Jessica and Emerald gave birth to beautiful children. Martin's son looked just like his mother, So was named Emris. Sam's daughter looked nothing like either of her parents, so was named Amoura because love is what kept them together.

And everyone was happy. That is, until the next bout of troubles…but that is another story, all together.

* * *

A/N : I have every intention of writing one more story to go with this…On to tell Ron's Story…and how he and Hermione got hitched. Don't worry, there will be more foolish candy tricks in that story, too!


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